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Hopeful Joy: A Study of Laetus in Vergil's Aeneid

Authors

David C. Anderson Wiltshire

Publisher

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library

Publication Date

Jan 01, 2012

Disciplines

Agricultural Science

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine Vergil's use of laetus (and laetitia, laetor, and inlaetabilis) in the Aeneid; for context, I also present the use of the laet- stem in earlier poets and in the Georgics and Eclogues. The two basic uses of laetus in Latin literature indicate human emotion (joyful) and agricultural lushness (fertile). I argue that the laetus-emotion in the Aeneid is one of hopeful joy: joy in that the emotion is vivid, positive, and thrilling, and hopeful in that the source of the joy is hope for the future. This hope is usually created by a reversal (or perceived reversal) of fortune; an event (like an omen, victory in battle, etc.) causes an individual with low expectations of success to have high expectations of success. Nevertheless, this hope may be disaster-prone, as Lyne argues: this hopeful joy often results in disaster. The laetus-emotion is a thrill, a shock of sensation, and it does not refer to long-term contentment. In addition, this thrill of sensation is often accompanied by physical excitement: a laetus individual is often loud and jubilant in his physical exultation. In my introduction, I offer background information on other scholars' studies of laetus and on the use of the word in other Latin authors. In Chapter Two, I treat the instances of laetus in the Aeneid outside Book 5 that express human emotion, in the context of fields that I identify (setting out, arrival, battle, prayer, founding). In Chapter Three I discuss the uses of laetus in Book 5 of the Aeneid; I separate them in this way because the uses in Book 5 neatly demonstrate my arguments regarding laetus in the eleven other books. In Chapter Four I discuss all the instances of laetitia, laetari, and inlaetabilis in the Aeneid. In Chapter Five I treat the laet- stem in the Georgics and Eclogues, and in Chapter Six, the analogous agricultural use in the Aeneid. In Chapter Seven I discuss the uses of laetus in the Aeneid that do not neatly conform to any of my categories, and I offer suggestions as to their interpretation.

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